An examination of polymorphic stability and molecular conformational flexibility as a function of crystal size...

The polymorphic behaviour of the aromatic ketone, benzophenone, which is a conformationally flexible molecule and forms crystal structures dominated by van der Waals intermolecular interactions, is examined. Crystallization of this material from the undercooled molten state yields the two known polymorphic forms, i.e. the stable alpha-form and the metastable beta-form. The relative, energetic stabilities are examined using both crystal lattice and molecular conformational modelling techniques. Examination of nano-sized faceted molecular clusters of these forms, with cluster sizes ranging from 3 to 100 molecules, reveals that at very small cluster size (< 5 molecules) the relative energetic stability of clusters representative for the two forms become very similar, indicating that for high melting undercooling (i.e. small critical cluster size for nucleation) crystallization of the metastable beta-phase becomes more likely. Detailed analysis of the variation in molecular conformations within the simulated molecular clusters reveals more disordered three-dimensional structures at small compared to larger cluster sizes. The conformational disorder was found to be higher for the metastable beta-form. This observation, together with the lower stability of clusters for this form is indicative of the difficulty in achieving crystallization of the metastable beta-form from the melt, which requires a considerable undercooling.